United States v. Stanley Harvey Davis

400 F. App'x 538
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 20, 2010
Docket09-14124
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 400 F. App'x 538 (United States v. Stanley Harvey Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Stanley Harvey Davis, 400 F. App'x 538 (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Stanley Davis appeals the district court’s modification of a lump-sum restitution order to require periodic restitution payments of $100 per month. Davis contends that he should have been afforded counsel at the district court hearing on his motion to modify, and he alleges that the court abused its discretion in fixing the scheduled payment amount at $100 per month. After careful consideration of the parties’ briefs and a thorough review of the record, we affirm.

I. Right to Counsel

The existence of a right to counsel is a question of law that we review de novo. United States v. Webb, 565 F.3d 789, 793 (11th Cir.2009). “Pro se filings ... are entitled to liberal construction.” Mederos v. United States, 218 F.3d 1252, 1254 (11th Cir.2000). Although the government contends that the Davis’s claim should be reviewed only for plain error, Davis’s pro se motion for appointment of counsel — if liberally construed — preserved his argument for appeal. We review a district court’s calculation of restitution for an abuse of discretion. See Cani v. United States, 331 F.3d 1210, 1212 (11th Cir.2003).

Indigent parties may have a right to an attorney based on three different sources. Webb, 565 F.3d at 794. First, a party may have a constitutional right under the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel. “It is well-established that under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, a criminal defendant is entitled to effective assistance of counsel during trial, during the penalty phase of a capital case, and at various critical stages of a criminal prosecution where substantial rights of a criminal accused may be affected.” Williams v. Turpin, 87 F.3d 1204, 1209 (11th Cir.1996) (citations and quotations omitted). Although a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to counsel during the first appeal, once that appeal is complete, the “obligation of ensuring equal access to the court system is no longer constitutionally required.” Id. We have “consistently held that there is no federal constitutional right to counsel in postconviction proceedings.” Barbour v. Haley, 471 F.3d 1222, 1227 (11th Cir.2006).

In some circumstances, defendants also have a right to counsel based on Fifth Amendment guarantees of due process. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fifth Amendment to require counsel to be appointed whenever “fundamental fairness” would demand it. Webb, 565 F.3d at 794 (citing Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 790, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 1763, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973)). In Gagnon, the Supreme Court found that due process might entitle the petitioner to counsel in a probation revocation hearing, in which resolution of the dispute required the petitioner to marshal facts and examine witnesses. See 411 U.S. at 786-90, 93 S.Ct. at 1761-64. The Court concluded that due process concerning the appointment of counsel should be examined on a ease-by-case basis. Id. at 788, 93 S.Ct. at 1763.

Finally, a defendant has a statutory right to counsel under 18 U.S.C. § 3006A. According to the statute, representation is provided to a financially eligible defendant in certain circumstances, including: when the defendant is entitled to appointment of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution; when the defendant “faces *540 the loss of liberty in a case, and Federal law requires the appointment of counsel”; and whenever the court determines that the interests of justice so require, including when a defendant seeks relief under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2254, or 2255. 18 U.S.C. § 3006A(a)(l), (2). Section 3006A(c) — the subsection on which Davis relies — states in pertinent part: “Duration and Substitution of Appointments. — A person for whom counsel is appointed shall be represented at every stage of the proceedings from his initial appearance before the United States magistrate judge or the court through appeal, including ancillary matters appropriate to the proceedings.” 18 U.S.C. 3006A(c) (emphasis in heading original).

Davis was not entitled to counsel under any of these three sources. Although a defendant is entitled to counsel during direct appeal, he does not have a Sixth-Amendment right to counsel during collateral attacks on his sentence. See Barbour, 471 F.3d at 1227; United States v. Berger, 375 F.3d 1223, 1226-27 (11th Cir.2004). More specifically, the Sixth Amendment does not guarantee a right to counsel at a hearing in which a defendant requests the court’s leniency in modifying a validly imposed restitution order. See Webb, 565 F.3d at 794. Because Davis had already exhausted his direct appeal, his corresponding Sixth Amendment right to counsel has already been extinguished. See Barbour, 471 F.3d at 1227; Williams, 87 F.3d at 1209.

Further, the district court did not deprive Davis of his due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, as Davis’s self-representation did not result in a fundamentally unfair hearing. Even assuming Davis suffered from a legitimate mental condition, it did not impair his ability to present his motion to the court or to report his financial condition, such that the hearing was fundamentally unfair. Davis was able to present a complete picture of his finances that allowed the court to arrive at a $100-per-month payment schedule. Beyond an unsupported allegation, Davis identifies no specific mental or physical disability that impaired his ability to receive a fair disposition of his claim, and he otherwise identifies no defect that deprived him of his due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.

Finally, Davis does not have a statutory right to counsel. Section 3006A provides that an indigent defendant is entitled to appointed counsel when, among other circumstances, the Sixth Amendment so requires, federal law mandates representation, or the defendant faces the loss of liberty. See 18 U.S.C. § 3006A(a). None of those conditions is present here. Nor was the hearing within the ambit of the “ancillary matters” contemplated by § 3006A(c), despite Davis’s claims to the contrary. As we have noted, the legislative history of § 3006A(c) indicates that “ancillary matters” are “limited to proceedings comprehended within the action for which the appointment was made.” In re Lindsey,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
400 F. App'x 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-stanley-harvey-davis-ca11-2010.